You mean like Maxpass? If so then I agree. I enjoyed Maxpass when I used it on my last DL trip in 2019. But that ship has sailed a long time ago and Disney is doubling down on Genie+ or some form of paid Premier Pass. The last holdout Tokyo Disneyland just announced a paid skip the line service so I don't think they'll revert back to anything else.
Fun question!
I don’t think I’m allowed to link the article here but Disney literally sent a survey out last month asking people why the 50th celebration fell below their expectations and these were the options to choose from so they know it was subpar and slapped together themselves:
Covid only affected Disney I see. It amazes how other parks managed to pull off anniversaries post Covid and with most of what was planned.
That's what Genie+ was supposed to work like minus the paid LL. The problem is at Disneyland it works as fewer people buy it. It's a big reason Genie+ isn't working. More people have bought it then they expected.
That wasn’t just what a Year Of Million Dreams was about. I was only a kid when it was going on but I remember they had a special museum in one of the buildings on Main Street (I want to say either in Town Square next to Tony’s or the Cinema?) that had all of the history of the park so far and other artefacts on display to look at and read through and there were CMs stationed in there answering questions and talking about the park’s history. They gave everyone who went in there a special 25th anniversary badge that had a spot for you to put the year of your first ever visit on there and we still have them now. It was little touches like that and not just the opportunity to get “free stuff” that made it special.
So did CA...
For anyone who has not watched this video, it really is best possible way to fully understand the how and the why of various iterations of virtual queues that Disney has chosen to employ over the years. Honestly, if people just watched these videos before commenting on how the different systems work (have worked) it would make for a much better conversation.
I think you need to watch the video before you can understand what they meant by leveling the playing field.
The video doesn't leave money out of the explanation. They explain how Disney resort guests, who are generally paying much more than off-site guests, had such a huge advantage under FP+
You know I respect your positioning in general and appreciated our past dialogues, but seriously as it relates to the anniversary issue - to the degree COVID did or did not do anything - is doing or not doing anything - can be debated to the end of time (and probably will). If we are being honest, the sheer magnitude of the production of Disney in Florida as compared to other parks, is not even apples to oranges ( I am not creative enough to come up with another analogy for size of fruits ) -
It also shows that Disney doesn't have enough capacity for everyone to have a skip the line pass. IMO that's the biggest problem they face. It goes back to the original FP. It was brought in to stop complaints about long waits. IMO cause of that many have a hard time accepting that part of going to any park is waiting in line.
Genie Plus and MaxPass are very similar in how they work, especially now that you will have to buy Genie+ day of use. Obviously the scope and scale of WDW is so much larger than DL so experience may not be the same, but as far as how they approach queueing theory, MaxPass and Genie Plus are about as close as you can get.
I agree with this part in particular and it's something I thought about after watching this video. I think a lot of people, myself included, initially hated Genie+ because of it being more of a balanced playing field for everyone despite the paywall. We knew the tips and tricks to game Fastpass+ and now those were harder to do in this new system. Fastpass+ worked the best when you had guests that didn't fully understand how to use it and I think that still applies to Genie+ as well.
I get Disney is much bigger then all other parks. My point was more about how the smaller parks did more to celebrate their history then what Disney did. I think that's why many are upset about it.
I think that's the thing. We don't mind waiting in line. That is part of it, no way around it really. Even purchasing Genie+, you still have to wait at times. So that's why we don't purchase Genie+, just plan to go at less busy times of the day, do the headliners at rope drop or end of day, and wait in line for the other rides or see a show, eat some food, go for a swim during the busy times of the day.
Genie+ is like Maxpass except for no rerides and you also had the option to walk over to rides and grab a paper Fastpass if you didn't pay. It worked very well in DL but not so much in WDW.
Even Genie+ works better at DL. A lot of it has to to with the amount of people buying.
